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Description

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917)Éternel printemps, deuxième état, première réduction,
conceived in 1884; this reduced size conceived in 1898; this
example cast between 1899-1901
Bronze with brown-black patina
25-7/8 x 33-1/4 x 15-3/4 inches (65.8 x 84.5 x 40 cm)
Signed on the right side of the base: Rodin
Inscribed with the foundry mark on the back of the base: F.
BARBEDIENNE Fondeur; stamped on the back of the base: A.
COLLAS RÉDUCTION MÉCANIQUE BREVETÉ
With the workshop stamp to the interior: Z / 674 / Z

PROVENANCE:
Harry Glass, Long Island, New York, circa 1950s;
Estate of the above;
Neal Glass, Long Island, New York, by descent;
Estate of the above.

This lot will be included under number 2018-5701B in the
forthcoming Catalogue Critique de l'Oeuvre Sculpté d'Auguste
Rodin being prepared by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the
direction of Jérôme Le Blay.

Rodin created his Éternel Printemps (Eternal
Springtime), two lovers locked in a passionate embrace, in
1884--while he was still laboring on his teeming tour de force for
the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, TheGates of Hell. The
sculptor originally intended this amorous group to be part of
The Gates of Hell, but changed his mind when the ecstatic
impact of the lovers' sexually charged pose was so clearly at odds
with the tortured theme of the Gates.

Rodin conceived the figures in his Éternel Printemps to be
representations of Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini--the
star-crossed lovers of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem,
TheDivine Comedy. Appropriately, their love story
occurs in the Inferno section (Canto V) of Dante's
three-part poem (which also includes Purgatorio and
Paradiso), for their love indeed became a tragic hell for
them. Francesca was the sister-in-law of Paolo Malatesta, and both
were married--she to his crippled brother Giovanni. Francesca's
marriage to Giovanni had been a political one: her father Guido da
Polenta had been at war with the Malatestas, and her marriage to
Giovanni had been a way of securing the peace. It was in Rimini
that Francesca met and fell in love with Paolo, Giovanni's younger
and very handsome brother. The lovers managed to keep their
adulterous affair secret for ten years. However, when their
relationship was discovered, they were murdered by Francesca's
husband and Paolo's brother, Sigismondo Malatesta, and banished to
the second circle of hell, which was reserved for the lustful, and
where they wandered for eternity.

Rodin was not alone in his artistic enthusiasm for the tragedy of
Francesca and Paolo. Scores of European and British artists active
during the Victorian period drew and painted scenes from the
lovers' torrid tale, showing the couple soaring entwined through
the air, meeting Dante and Virgil in hell, embracing each other
before they are discovered, and expiring on the bed on which they
are murdered. Notable treatments of the theme occur in works by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Gustave Doré, George Frederic Watts, Henry
Fuseli, and Alexandre Cabanel. Throughout the 19th century, the
story of Paolo and Francesca also inspired numerous operatic,
theatrical and symphonic adaptations.

In many ways, Éternel Printemps is Rodin's most ravishing
expression of the Paolo and Francesca subject, which the sculptor
treated more than once. Notably, Rodin's famous, and roughly
contemporary sculpture, The Kiss, was also a sculptural
group he had originally designed to depict these Italian lovers,
and incorporate into The Gates of Hell. However, like
Éternel Printemps, The Kiss also seemed incongruous within
the context of Rodin's hell owing to its happy sensuality. Rodin
allowed it to become an independent work and exhibited it to wide
acclaim in 1887. When compared with Éternel Printemps,
however, The Kiss is a quieter and more contained expression
of passion. Notably, the nude bodies appear in a more static pose
and are not as exuberantly and frontally displayed. The figures
turn towards each other to kiss, seated comfortably next to one
another. They turn away from the rest of the world and into their
own.

By contrast, Éternel Printemps is more expansive, effusive
and active. Paolo and Francesca are embracing as if they had just
suddenly decided to act upon a powerful impulse. Paolo is only half
seated, with only one leg firmly planted, while bracing himself on
a rock with one hand and holding a kneeling, almost swooning
Francesca with the other. Francesca's back is sharply arched as she
nearly doubles back on herself, to meet Paolo's lips as though her
life depended on it. The rocky ground under their feet and limbs is
staggered at different levels and tiers as though, owing to their
passion, they have found themselves literally on shaky ground.

Rodin derived the distinctive arched pose of Francesca's torso from
the Torso of Adele, which appears in the upper left corner
of the tympanum in The Gates of Hell, and for which the
Italian-born Adele Abruzzesi had posed. At the time he sculpted
Éternel Printemps, however, Rodin was romantically involved
with the young sculptor of great talent, Camille Claudel.
Reine-Marie Paris, the granddaughter of Claudel's brother Paul, has
suggested that while the figure of Francesca owes a debt to the
Torso of Adele, it bears distinct resemblances to Camille
Claudel who may have been the immediate model.

Certainly there is a marked increase in the eroticism of Rodin's
work during the period he produced Éternel Printemps, as
well as a more daring movement in the poses which could derive from
the sculptor's studio practice of allowing models to move more
freely and independently. The mature Rodin was aware that movement
in sculpture ratchets up the opportunity for exploring dazzling
play of light on form, which dances all over Éternel
Printemps and heightens the energy of the figures. As Rodin
scholars Ionel Jianou and Cecile Goldschneider have remarked:
"[Rodin] uses 'highlights, heavy shadows, paleness, quivering,
vaporous half-tones, and transitions so finely shaded that they
seem to dissolve into air,' giving his sculpture 'the radiance of
living flesh'."

For someone as sexually charged as Rodin, who used to rub his hands
all over his nude sculptures as though they were the living,
breathing, models, mistresses and muses who inspired them, it is
hard to dissociate this magnificent bronze from his own biography.
Indeed, at the time he produced it, Rodin was embarking on the love
affair of his life with Camille Claudel, with whom he was
passionately besotted through his later forties and fifties. Their
relationship was an intense but tumultuous one, owing to Rodin's
refusal to leave his longtime companion Rose Beuret, Claudel's
artistic rivalry with him and - probably - her mental instability
(she spent much of her later life in an institution). He once wrote
to her in a way that reads virtually like a page out of Dante, and
betrays the depth of his own experience with an impossible romance:
"Have pity, mean girl. I can't go on. I can't go another day
without seeing you. Atrocious madness, it's the end, I won't be
able to work anymore. Malevolent goddess, and yet I love you
furiously."

Estimate: $400,000 - $600,000.

Condition Report*:
The dark rich patina is in very good condition. A few areas of slight rubbing include: along the line of the thumb and index finger of the male figure's raised hand; a spot on the ankle bone of the male figure's right foot; along the female figure's raised arm with a somewhat shiny spot on her elbow.A few scratches are to be found: on the female figure's bicep of her raised arm; on the outside of her right thigh; on both of her calf muscles; a few scratches on male figure's neck and along to his left shoulder. The rocky base is in very good condition throughout with a few possible areas of very slight rubbing on highest ridges on perimeter of the form at right, front and left sides.There is a patch of slight abrasion to patina on female figure's lower right calf just above her heel.

*Heritage Auctions strives to provide as much information as possible but encourages in-person inspection by bidders.
Statements regarding the condition of objects are only for general guidance and should not be relied upon as complete statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation,
warranty or assumption of liability by Heritage. Some condition issues may not be noted in the condition report but are apparent in the provided photos which are considered part of the condition report.
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